The Montessori Perspective at Home: Part 1

“Why do we choose Montessori education for our children?” My husband and I ask ourselves this question every year when it is time to pay our annual registration fees for the next school year. We also ask ourselves, “Maybe this year we could transition them to public school and save some money?”  The pros and cons list is just about the same each year, and every year we come to the same conclusion: The Montessori philosophy carried out in an authentic, qualified school, is the best return on our financial investment and nothing else supports our family values quite like our Montessori school. So, we return. We commit to another year. And we develop ourselves a little bit more as seasoned Montessori parents. 

Early on in our Montessori parenting journey, we committed to deepening our understanding of the philosophy, so we could best support our children at school and at home. We quickly learned as we frantically tried to set up classroom space in our home, copy all the works from our child’s classroom and create separate time to carry out the philosophy, that we were doing the opposite of supporting our children. So we had to re-think what the philosophy meant to us at school, and what it meant to us at home.

Bringing the Montessori perspective into your home can be explored in many different ways and looks different for each family. It is important to appreciate that each home is different, each child is different and therefore everyone must make work what they can. The love, comfort, and familial connection a child experiences at home can never be replaced by the classroom. And what a child experiences in a Montessori classroom cannot always be duplicated in the home. The classroom is yet an extension of a child’s small world that both enhances and supports their development.  Differentiating between the educational philosophy at school and the perspective at home does require some digging on part of the family. But let me help break it down; The philosophy is carried out in a classroom community, by trained staff. The perspective at home is explored and carried out within the family system. The home easily lends itself to carrying out the Montessori perspective based on the philosophy because it was developed by Maria Montessori’s years of scientific observation and research of children of all abilities and ages, not just in a classroom.  

to be cont.

Part 2: Give yourself grace, and observe the child.

Claire is the School Director at Center Grove Montessori and has 5 children, 2 of which currently attend the Primary and Elementary classrooms. She has been a Montessori Mom for 7 years and has learned a great deal about parenting, and the Montessori philosophy from the community of parents and staff at CGM.